‘A Crazy Soundscape and Experience:’ WondaGurl Talks Turning Tequila Sounds Into ‘New’ Music

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When it comes to making good music, WondaGurl says it’s a lot like making good tequila.

Dressed in a light blue Jacquemus silk suit, white and brown Jordan 1’s on her feet with matching light blue shoe laces, the Toronto-based super-producer had the crowd talking last week at the Avión Listening Experience 2.0.

As guests filed in around a pair of $110,000 Dali Kore speakers at Soundlux Audio in Miami, WondaGurl, who’s worked with everyone from Mariah Carey to Drake, teamed up with Tequila Avión on a night of unique tunes and tequila tasting.

WondaGurl says the chance to create new sounds by “remixing” audio from the tequila-making process was a perfect match for her. “It fits really well because I’m into making soundscapes anyways,” WondaGurl tells Rolling Stone. “I felt like I was able to create a crazy soundscape and experience. I feel like with all my music and all the beats I make, I’m trying to create some sort of experience for people,” she adds. “So this was really cool.”

This was Avión’s second hosted “listening experience,” following a session with Iman Shumpert in Brooklyn this past spring to celebrate the release of Avión Reserva Cristalino. Similar to the earlier event, Avión’s Listening Experience 2.0 in Miami emphasized how sound can impact taste. While both listenings included unique sound from the tequila-making process — including the agave piña harvest, cooking and distilling, and filling the barrels with liquid — WondaGurl’s take on the audio created a cinematic thrill, using her signature sonics to add context for listeners to feel different moods and ambient sounds. 

As Avión ambassador Carlos Ramirez guided guests through the tasting, WondaGurl’s mix helped bring out different flavors while tasting the Reserva spirit: high-pitch tones helped to bring out the vanilla, caramel and orange zest in the tequila, while the low pitch brought out the agave. “I love the fact that you could change the way you taste with sound,” WondaGurl said. “I think that’s just incredible.”

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Though she was reinterpreting natural sounds of chopping, baking, bottling and pouring, you could immediately hear WondaGurl’s impact on the audio, as it resembles many of the same qualities found in her music — think the same eerie, spacious lo-fi style of production that has been credited to Toronto’s pioneer beatmakers over the years like WondaGurl. At one point guests even heard audio of a dog barking that was almost identical to the one in the Drake and Travis Scott 2015 track, “Company” that was of course produced by WondaGurl, Allen Ritter, TM88 and Scott.  

WondaGurl is set to deliver her first solo project next year, which she tells Rolling Stone, will be an instrumental electronic compilation. While she tried to do an album with artists, she just felt it was taking too long, she says.

“I feel like it just feels a lot more true to me than getting kind of into the DJ Khaled or Metro Boomin way,” WondaGurl adds. “Cause I just love to create sonics.”